Warblettes
by the-life-of-a-pengwen
Summary: Two girls are sick of their life at Crawford Country day, and decide to switch it up by trasfering to Dalton. Although, some disguises are needed, and things get complicated.  Also centered around Jeff and Wes
1. Chapter 1

**Hi! Well, this is actually my first real fanfic, to be honest. ^^' It's a collab fic that I've been writing with my friend for a couple days, and don't worry, it's not all a bunch of OCs. There are actually Warblers. (In the next chapter...) Please review if you can, because I want to become a better writer, and that can only happen with reviews! Thanks so much! :]**

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><p><strong>*Gwen's POV*<strong>

"Ugh," I slammed the door behind me, sinking face-first into my bed. "I. Hate. This. SCHOOL!" I yelled, my voice muffled by the navy comforter. I heard a light sigh and a click as my roommate shut her laptop.

"You're just a ray of sunshine, aren't you?" Her soprano voice dripped with sarcasm.

"Don't act like you don't totally agree with me," I mumbled as I rolled over. I rubbed my eyes in attempt to rid myself of exhaustion. "All the girls here are stupid, the classes are boring and easy, and there aren't any boys! It's awful!" I gestured frantically at every item on my list.

"Actually Gwen, I been thinking the same thing for quite a while and," my friend smiled. "I've got an idea."

"Hannah," I got up and began to pace about the room. "You just don't under—wait, why are you smiling at me like that?"  
>I stopped and my friend giggled. She shook her head and smiled.<p>

"I have an idea," Hannah repeated. Hannah opened her laptop again as I sat next to her at the small desk we shared. With a few clicks, Hannah pulled up a page and turned to the screen so it faced me. It was filled with pictures of boys in dark blue blazers with a red trim. It showed them throwing their heads back and laughing as if they were having the time of their lives. They were in a multitude of settings. Two words in bold letters sat at the top of the page.

"Dalton Academy?" I read aloud. Hannah nodded at me.

"Yup. I've been looking into it for a couple weeks now. It's the 'sibling' school of Crawford, so it's pretty similar to here, but I think we both need a little change of atmosphere. All we have to do is transfer," she hesitated, "and pretend to be guys." I laughed for a moment before I noticed the serious expression on Hannah's face.

"Wait a minute," I pushed my glasses up on my nose, a nervous habit of mine. "Are you serious?! Hannah, how the hell would we get away with this? We are very obviously _not boys_!" Her eyes avoided my gaze as she ran her fingers through her short black hair, careful not to tear out the purple bow that was clipped in it.

"Well, the uniforms aren't form-fitting, so we wouldn't have a problem there. You may have to get a bit of a haircut, though," she gestured to my blonde, shoulder-length hair. "I think I'll be fine, though."

"Of course you will," I muttered. "You have a fricking pixie-cut..." She glared at me, raising an eyebrow before continuing.

"_Anyways_, the only other thing is disguise our voices, but we could probably pass for guys who haven't hit puberty yet."

"What about our birth certificates?" I asked. This seemed like such a crazy idea. I didn't know how the hell Hannah had ever thought of this. My first bet was too much anime-watching on her part. Hannah could spend hours staring at those wide-eyed characters with impossibly-colored hair. I had no doubt she'd lost a few brain cells for each season of whatever she watched.

"You can get fake ones can't you?" Hannah asked. She carefully put her laptop on the desk.

"Well yeah, probably, but that's illegal!" I exclaimed.

"Think about it, Gwen," Hannah said seriously. "How much more illegal is staying here until you get so pissed off at the people here that you end up kicking the living crap out of them?"

Honestly, I was about a class period away from shooting Jamie Corbon's face. And I suppose that would get me more jail time than forging a face birth certificate. The more I though about this idea the more I liked it, and the more I wanted it to happen. I was always up for a challenge. This could turn out to be an exciting adventure. However, one thought lingered at the back of my mind.

"What about our parents?" I murmured. A look of pain and worry flashed over Hannah's eyes, but was quickly replaced by that of stubbornness and anger.

"They don't care," The small Asian girl shrugged. "They're on the other side of the world. Lithuania and Indonesia are millions of miles away. Besides, we've forged their signatures tons of times." I took a deep breath and nodded my head slowly before shrugging my shoulders and throwing up my hands in surrender.

"Well...what the hell?" I grinned. "Sounds like fun."

"Yay!" Hannah jumped up and clapped her hands together. "We should get to work though," Her expression suddenly turned to pure determination.

"Right," I laughed softly and sighed. It was going to take an entire night just to get the certificates made. "You should probably do some more research on the place," this could take all weekend to finish. We might have to pull a few all-nighters. I pulled my lime green laptop out of my backpack, flipping it open and beginning to type frantically.

Hannah nodded and proceeded to turn to her laptop as well, her studious habits kicking in as she scrolled, reading every letter of every word on the site. I knew if anyone could pull this off, we could.

***Hannah's POV***

I have the remarkable ability to keep myself awake when I needed important work to be done. If given enough coffee, I could probably take over the world. People often severely under-estimated me, but that only gave me an upper-hand. So for sixteen straight hours I analyzed the guidelines and rules of the student manual, and copied important phone numbers onto a notepad. My tiny, slightly cursive handwriting was barely legible, even to myself. The wall next to my bed was covered in colorful sticky notes of that same handwriting, and the occasional note was covered in Gwen's handwriting, the result of our brain-storming sessions. I let my eyes trail over the wall for only a second, but soon I returned to my work, typing crazily. I came across a web link to the Dalton's show choir performance. Lazily, I clicked it. Through the speakers of my laptop, I listened to Teenage Dream by Katy Perry. I tapped my foot along with the tune as I continued to explore the site. It seemed that the show choir was a very big part of the school's extracurricular activities. The site was filled with many pictures of the students performing in competitions and showcases and concerts. My eye was drawn to an Asian boy in the choir.

I felt my cheeks flush as I noticed a picture of the boy kicking a soccer ball. His face looked focused, yet happy and energetic. The dark blue jersey had red numbers that highlighted each individual player. I closed my eyes and sighed, smiling and imagining the boy running and scoring the winning goal. Teenage Dream played softly in the background, begging me to fall asleep and create a dream of my own. Soon enough, I gave into temptation.

"Hannah," a familiar voice shook me from my slumber. I opened my eyes and sat up, lifting my head from the blessed comfort of my soft, warm pillow. "Oh good, you're awake," Gwen sorted through an assortment of papers that surrounded her. I yawned as she set a couple in front of me.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Release and transfer forms," she told me casually. "I finished the birth certificates last night."

"Holy damn," I rubbed my eyes with balled up fists. My laptop was closed, thankfully, so I didn't destroy the battery. "That was fast."

Gwen shrugged. "Yeah, I guess." She handed me more papers. "Here, fill these out."  
>I grabbed a pen from the tin can I had decorated with black cow spots. I clicked the pen, dropped it, and cursed loudly as I bent down to pick it up. Carefully I marked the registration form, with Gwen's help.<p>

"What's my male name?" I asked her.

"Lewis," Gwen said, glancing up from the paperwork.

I laughed. "Lewis? Why Lewis?"

"You look like a Lewis," Gwen said simply.

"Lewis is a name for underpaid librarians," I laughed. "Whatever though. I guess I can be a Lewis." I shifted as I wrote on the form. "What's your name?"

"Alex," Gwen said. She picked up the papers and set them on the desk. Afterward, she flopped onto her bed. "I'm so tired."

"Then go to sleep!" I told her. I finished my paper and added it to the stack. "Or do you want me to get you a coffee?"

"Coffee please," Gwen said into her pillow.

"Have you eaten breakfast?" I asked, walking to the door.

"Mfnnmm..." Gwen said.

I rolled my eyes. "I'll get you a muffin." I grabbed my wallet. Gwen gave me a thumbs up as I headed out the door.

I walked through the campus in my Hello Kitty pajama pants and a bright striped blue tank top. I realized this was probably the last time to walk around in my pajamas in public, so I treasured every comfortable moment. I walked into the on-campus coffee lounge, and walked towards the cashier.

"One green tea and one mocha with..." I glanced toward the menu, realizing I had no idea what kind of coffee Gwen preferred. I shrugged, giving the cashier a 'aw, what the hell,' look. "Two shots." I knew Gwen would be bouncing off the walls, but I was too last to change the order. The cashier smiled and nodded, and took the money from me. "Oh, and two chocolate muffins, please." I handed her an extra few dollars. The cashier gave me the muffins immediately, and I sat in a chair, and waited for the coffee.

***Gwen's POV***

I stared at the ceiling. It was bare and boring. I wouldn't miss it at Dalton. I tried to list off things I would miss, but my mind went blank. Dalton seemed like the perfect school. It had excellent classes, fun extra curricular activities, a beautiful campus and building, and boys. Lots of them.

A smirk settled over my face. I wasn't a slut or anything, I just liked being around boys. Hot boys. Smart, hot boys. Yes, that's all. Plus, a little eye-candy never hurt anyone. Maybe I could find Hannah a guy as well...

My thoughts were interrupted as Hannah entered the room.

"Get up," she told me. "I brought coffee." The promise of caffeine was enough to pry me away from my bed. I was handed a muffin and a container filled with piping hot coffee. The smell of green tea wafted over from my friend's drink.

"So," she sat down, cradling the beverage in her hands, "what are we doing today?"  
>I took a sip, burning my mouth in the process. "Well, we should probably go downtown so we can get new clothes and haircuts." Hannah's expression changed from normal to confused.<br>"New...clothes?" She asked with caution.

"Yes," I stated bluntly. "Sorry, Hannah, but this means no more dresses, frilly aprons, or cardigans. We'll have to get boy clothes." I could almost see the tears forming in her eyes.

"I can't get rid of my cardigans, dammit!" She whimpered. The look of utter despair on her face was too much for me to bear.

"Fine," I sighed. "You can keep one or two cardigans, but that's it!" Her expression relaxed, and a small smile appeared where her frown previously resided. "Now get dressed and find your credit card. We're going to need it today." Hannah took a final bite of her muffin and began to search through her closet for an outfit.

I got up and ate my muffin while grabbing a bright blue t-shirt, my favorite black vest, and a pair of dark blue skinny jeans. Finishing off my coffee, I tossed the cup in the trash and headed for the small bathroom that connected to our dorm. I took a quick shower, and got back to find Hannah dressed in a fluffy polka dot skirt and a red blouse. Over it all she wore a grey cardigan. She did a last minute check on the Dalton page.  
>"Ready?" I asked, pulling on my <em>Converse <em>and a white fedora.

"Yup," she shut her laptop. I grabbed my wallet and followed Hannah out the door.  
>The one good thing about having parents that haven't seen you since you were four is that they really can't ground you for anything. Our parents were wealthy, so as long as they never had to see us, they didn't care how much money we spent. Maybe I had minor abandonment issues, but at least I didn't get in trouble for anything.<p>

"Which car are we taking?" Hannah asked, bringing me back to reality.

"Um, mine." I told her. There weren't really any buses that came out to Crawford. We exited the building, along with other girls that casually stood around, chatting with others. The sun shone down from the autumn sky, which was unusually clear for this tie of year. We trotted over to my sky-blue _Volkswagen Beetle_, and I hopped into the driver's side. Hannah settled next to me and we buckled our seatbelts as I started the engine. Wicked songs began to play from the speakers as I drove away.

"Where to first?" I questioned my tiny friend.

"Hair," she said without hesitation.

"Alright," I mumbled. The drive was short and uneventful.

When we arrived, the bell jingled as we opened the front door. A lady with a sleek black bob smiled as we entered the establishment. The decor was modern, with clean crisp colors.

"How can I help you ladies?" She chirped. Hannah and I exchanged a quick glance.

"Well," my pal began, "that's kind of why we're here." The woman shot me a quizzical look.

"We kind of need haircuts to make us look male," I tried to explain. The woman's look of confusion grew even more.

"It's a long story," Hannah shrugged. The woman still looked confused, but waved Hannah over to a hair-styling station.

"Well," she crossed her arms, "you could probably be okay with just some minor adjustments. That pixie-cut helps a lot." The woman examined Hannah's hair. "It's a bit feminine, but I can fix that." She turned to me, and raised an eyebrow. "You sure you want your hair that short, hon?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

The woman introduced us to another stylist, who, in turn, split Hannah and I apart. I went with the second hairdresser, a short Filipino woman who barely spoke English. The first woman explained to her the cut I wanted, and the Filipino woman—whose name was something along the lines of 'Dai Pon Ku,' or 'Thai Moung Yoo,' looked at me if I was completely nuts. She uttered something in Filipino, then set to work.

It is quite unsettling, watching strands of your own hair fall from above. To keep myself occupied I counted the strands, but after fifty-seven I got nervous and stopped. This haircut—though voluntary, saddened me. My naturally bright, blonde hair was a pain to grow out, and this boy-cut sure wasn't happening. After graduating from Dalton, I was going to have to wear fedoras for a year straight. Not that I really minded.

Finally, my haircut was finished. My eyes widened and my jaw dropped at the dramatic change. My shoulder-length locks were gone, and in their place was just air. Slightly shaggy bands were tossed over my forehead, and I brushed my hand back, feeling the emptiness of the back of my head.

Hannah, in her new shorter do, looked slightly different. Her ears showed more, and her fluffy bangs were gone. The days of ribbons and bows in her black hair were gone. I smiled at her, leaping from the chair I had been sitting in.

"Hey Lewis," I laughed.

"Alex," Hannah grinned. "I like your hair...it's...manly." She said this with caution, as if it were going to offend me, but I laughed again.

"Is this for some kind of Halloween costume?" The woman asked us as we paid for the haircuts.

"Sure," I said, walking out the door with Hannah beside me. The previously unnoticed breeze cooled the back of my neck, another reminder of the drastic change that had just taken place.

"Now," Hannah muttered as we walked back to my car. "Clothes."

***Hannah's POV***

The ride to the mall went faster than I had anticipated. After parking, we walked through the tall doors that towered over us. Unneeded air conditioning enclosed the large, open space.

"_Hot Topic_?" Gwen suggested, gesturing to the goth store to her left. I shook my head.

"No, we should try some place else, somewhere more casual," I looked through the many arches of options that lay before me. "How 'bout _Macy's_?" My friend darted off towards the store in response. I trailed after her, venturing into the unfamiliar territory of the men's clothing section. I flicked through a few pairs of shorts. Too baggy, I thought, and the winter weather was coming up soon.

"Hannah," I felt my friend tap my shoulder. Her arms were full of t-shirts in various colors. She also had a few hoodies and button-ups. What can I say? The girl was used to shopping here. I took the shirts she handed me, and grabbed a few pairs of jeans. We tried on our clothes, deciding on just a few items for each of us. We'd be wearing the Dalton uniforms most of the time anyway. We bought the clothing from a male cashier, earning a raised eyebrow I chose to ignore. He folding the clothing and bagged it, and I met Gwen at the door. I sniffed sadly.

"No cardigans," I said. Gwen patted my back supportively.

"It's okay, Hannah," she said. "It's okay."

We drove back home after our little escapade, the sun already set after our trip to _Macy's_. I felt myself dozing off, and I had to catch myself and prevent myself from falling asleep multiple times. Before I knew it, we were back in the dorm. I fell onto my bed, exhausted, and sunk into the blanket, ever grateful for the soft comfort it brought me. I tugged my pillow underneath my head, and passed out immediately, welcoming the dreams of our future at Dalton

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><p><strong>Thanks so much for reading! Stay tuned for an update that will be here soon! Review if you think you have something to help me become better at what I love! ^-^<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

***Hannah's POV***

I awoke to the sun shining in my eyes. Yanking the blanket over my head, I checked the time on my watch. 8:13 am. Good enough. I threw the blanket that covered me onto the ground. The sound of Gwen's music playing from her iPod could be heard coming from the bathroom, along with the splash of running water. That girl always got up far too early for her own good.

I gathered up a casual outfit for the day, and packed the rest of my clothes into a suitcase. I was going to be leaving soon, so I may as well have my clothes packed and ready to go. Gwen emerged from the bathroom shortly and packed her own clothes. We spend a good amount of time in comfortable silence packing, folding clothes, and sorting out what items could be pass for something owned by a boy, and what would have to go. After sitting for a few minutes with my moccasins in my lap, my friend placed her hand on my shoulder before sighing and shaking her head. I reluctantly tossed the shoes into our "give away" box, choking back tears as I did so. All of my hair pins and barrettes followed suit, tumbling in and making a clattering noise as I dropped them in, one by one. Gwen barely contributed to the collection. Curse her and her boyish clothes.

I turned to my bed, resting my hand on the fluffy pillow. "Goodbye, bed." I told the inanimate object. "Goodbye, dresser." I said to my wardrobe. "Goodbye—"

"Hannah? Are you really talking to the furniture?" Gwen raised an eyebrow at me.

"Um, maybe?" I gave her an awkward shrug as a reply. She shook her head and facepalmed.

"It's just furniture, Hannah."

"I know..." I hung my head. "So we don't have to turn in our papers today?" I questioned my friend, leaning up against the wall.

"Nope!" her voice exploded with enthusiasm. "I took care of that while you were asleep. We can move into our dorm at Dalton today!" She beamed at me, her eyes sparkling with excitement. "We might even get to meet a few other students!"

My mind immediately flashed to the nameless soccer boy. I felt my face warm up slightly, and hoped it wasn't noticeable. Damn those teenage hormones. "Yeah, that's cool," I attempted to keep a straight face.

"Well!" Gwen clapped her hands together. "Let's get going, shall we?"

***Gwen's POV***

We dragged our suitcases out to my car, grabbing a couple of bagels from the coffee lounge on campus on our way out. The barista didn't realize this was our last trip to the shop, but that didn't stop her from smiling and treating us kindly. I gave her an unusually high tip before I left.

Standing outside the school for the last time, I should have felt sad. But I didn't. All I could see was the immense amount of judgmental, shallow girls. I couldn't wait to leave. None of them had really become close to Hannah or I, so I didn't really care about them. Good riddance.

I climbed into the car, starting the engine and punching the address Hannah had given me into the GPS as my friend buckled in beside me.

"Turn left," the automated voice ordered me. I obeyed, taking in a deep breath as I left my past life behind me. The Ohio countryside rolled past us, fields of corn and wheat glowing gold under the cloudy sky. Silence filled the car, along with a sense of nervousness and anticipation. I tried not to think about the things that could go wrong. Instead I concentrated on not driving into a field of cows.

"Moo..." Hannah mumbled. She stared out the window.

"Shush," I said, anxiety making my stomach lurch.

"But there are cows..." Hannah said quietly.

"I need to focus on not killing us," I said. "So shush."

"Okay," Hannah responded. She pulled out her little brown notebook and began to write. I concentrated on the road again. It seemed never-ending, as if Hannah and I would just keep driving and driving, and we would never reach Dalton. The grey concrete before me stretched on, and I continued along it.

"Moo..." Hannah said again as we past another dairy farm. I gave her a heavy, exaggerated sigh. "Sorry," Hannah said. "I couldn't help myself."

I rolled my eyes as I continued to drive. A single blue truck passed us on the opposite lane.

"Michigan," Hannah read off the license plate.

"Hannah!" I exclaimed.

"Sorry!" Hannah said quickly. "I'm just really bored!"

"Your destination is in ten miles," the blunt voice of the GPS told us.

"Yay!" Hannah cheered.

"Finally," I sighed loudly.

For the next few minutes, we waited in almost unbearable anticipation. I admit to pressing my foot a little too hard on the gas pedal and going past the legal speed limit. As I turned around a hill, we both let out a gasp as we saw it. The building was huge and beautiful—it looked exactly how it did on the website. It was old and Victorian, and made out of bricks. We drove through the metal gates. I stared at the building in awe.

When we reached the parking lot, I pulled into a spot and parked. Hannah and I tumbled out of the car.

"Whoa," Hannah said.

"Holy crap," I responded.

After staring for a while, Hannah and I unlocked the trunk of my car, and we pulled out our suitcases. Boys littered the grounds. They were walking about, socializing, sitting, reading, and just hanging around. Everywhere I looked, I saw blue and red blazers.

"Holy...shit..." I blurted out. I wasn't used to seeing so many guys my own age. Hannah tugged on my sleeve, breaking my trance as we headed towards the office.

"You can't drool this much over the guys, Gwen!" She whispered. "You're supposed to be one of them! Act like it!"

We entered the main office to find a wrinkled, elderly woman with wispy gray hair sitting behind a desk. She looked up as we entered the room.

"Hi," I said nervously. "We're the new students, Alex Chapman and Lewis Dahn?" She clicked the mouse of her computer and typed a few things on her keyboard.

"Sophomores?" She asked. We nodded. "Alright," she pulled two keys on lanyards and two schedules out of a drawer in her desk. "You'll be in room C11. Someone should be up shortly to greet you guys and give you your uniforms. They'll explain the rules and tell you all about our extracurricular activities."

I tried to give a friendly smile and nodded my head at her.

"Thank you," Hannah squeaked. We left the office, the door swinging shut behind us. My little friend looked about ready to pass out. "I thought I was going to die," she sighed.  
>"Apparently the boy's clothing works," I said, gesturing to my hoodie.<p>

"Yeah," Hannah sniffed. "It's not cute at all, though."

I laughed as I tugged my suitcase along. "Its okay, Lewis."

Hannah looked mildly confused for a second, then realized that with all the boys around, we couldn't call each other by our first names anymore. We walked to the stairs, and started walking up them.

"C11, right?" I asked Hannah. She nodded, and we began looking for our room. It was at the very end of the hall, leaving us to carry our heavy luggage all the way there. Hannah struggled with hers.

"Need a little help there?" I asked with a laugh.

"Oh, shut up." Hannah huffed. "It's not my fault I have so much crap."

"Yeah, it is." I told her. "Did you really need your entire cookbook collection?"

The handle on Hannah's suitcase snapped, and she was sent butt-first onto the floor. "Crat!" Hannah cursed in Indonesian. She crossed her arms over her chest. "Of course I had to bring my books. They're like my babies!"

"I see," I chuckled. Hannah dragged her suitcase the rest of the way to our room. I opened the door with the key the receptionist had given us.

We entered a dorm that was nearly identical to our old one, albeit less girly, but there wasn't too much of a difference. I dropped my suitcase on one of the beds while Hannah went to check out the bathroom. I took a seat on my bed, taking a moment to let everything sink in. we were really doing this. We were actually transferred to Dalton. I took in a deep breath, and then heard a sharp rap on the door.

***Hannah's POV***

"I'll get it~" I sang as I skipped across the room to get the door. In one swift motion, I turned the doorknob and opened it wide. I came face to face with someone I recognized instantly.

That Asian boy.

I stared at him for a long time, my mouth wide open. My face felt extremely warm.  
>"Hello," the boy said politely. He stuck out his hand. "My name is Wesley Montgomery. I heard there were going to be new students, so I just wanted to come over and give you a good Dalton welcome." The boy smiled.<p>

"...hi," I said quietly.

"Who's at the door?" Gwen asked. I heard her soft footsteps behind me. "Oh," she said when she saw the boy. "Hello, I'm Alex."

"Wesley," The two shook hands. "Most people call me Wes."

"This is Lewis," Gwen gestured towards me. "I'm not sure why he's being so quiet all of a sudden, considering how irritating he was in the car." Gwen glared.

"Moo..." I grinned. Wes gave me a odd look and I instantly regretted making the animal noise.

"Well, if you need any help getting to classes, don't be afraid to ask me." He turned to leave. "Oh! By the way, we have a club called the Warblers. It's kind of like a show choir thing."

"Oh yeah," Gwen nodded. "Lewis showed me a performance of one of your songs. It was really awesome! You guys sound great!"

"We have auditions on Thursdays," Wes said. "You two should try out. It's a lot of fun!"

"Sure thing," Gwen told him as he walked away. "Thanks, Wes! It was nice meeting you."

"And you," Wes said, with that dashing smile of his. "I'll be by later to drop off your uniforms." I felt myself blush even more. Gwen closed the door after he had walked down the hall.

"He was nice," she commented.

"Yeah," my voice was high and squeaky.

"You thought he was hot, didn't you?" Gwen smirked.

"My first word to him was 'moo,' what do you think?" I sighed and collapsed on my new bed. It smelled clean and un-used. The sheets were soft and wrinkle-free.

"Technically, your first word to him was 'hi.' But it was a very timid 'hi.'" Gwen said factually.

"He must think I'm an idiot," I groaned.

"He also thinks you're a boy." Gwen said, sitting across from me. "So does it really matter?"

"Good point," I sat up. My stomach growled. "Dude, I'm so hungry. Let's go find the cafeteria."

Gwen fake gasped. "Is the pristine and perfect chef Hannah really going to ingest school food?"

"This is Dalton Academy. The food has to be good or the parents sue the school."

"Is that how it works?" Gwen asked as I walked to the door.

"Something like that," I waved my hand and reached for the doorknob. My stomach lurched as I quickly calculated the possibility of seeing Wes again. The chances were fairly high. The chances of me making a total idiot of myself in front of him again were also high. But I'd rather have a guy think I'm weird than sit in my room and starve.

Gwen and I walked down the hall and down the stairs. We entered the lobby. A few guys waved and said hello, and we returned the gesture. I felt on edge, and I was terrified that someone would point, and yell, "Who's that chick?"

But that didn't happen. We found the cafeteria relatively easily, and we got in line for food. The serving lady handed us each a plate of semi-edible-looking pasta in a red sauce. I examined it carefully, grimacing as we found a table.

"This is nothing compared to real food," I said as we took a seat at one of the tables. Shrugging her shoulders, Gwen sat next to me.

"Eh, it's alright," She said as she took a bite. I flinched.

"It's culinary mediocrity." I bluntly stated. A chuckle came from next to us, and I turned to see a blonde male seated in a chair beside me.

"Sorry," he grinned. "I couldn't help but overhear. Are you guys new?"

I nodded my head. I noticed Gwen's head nodding as well from the corner of my eye. The boy extended a hand towards me.

"My name is Jeff, Jeff Sterling. I'm a sophomore."

"Lewis, and I am too," I saw Gwen blush when their hands met.

"A-Alex, same." She stuttered, blushing even more. The boy continued to beam in our direction. Mein gott, I thought. He looked happy enough to cure cancer.

"Cool," Jeff continued. "Has anybody shown you around the school yet? Or given you uniforms?"

"No," I shook my head. "But Wes came around and introduced us to Dalton. He said he'd be coming by later with our uniforms."

"No way!" Jeff exclaimed. "Wes is awesome. He's actually one of my closest friends. Maybe I'll come by with him later and say 'hello.'"

"Feel free to. Are you part of the Warblers as well?" These Dalton boys sure were friendly. Amongst…other things.

"Yep! I just love to sing." The blonde laughed. He glanced at the clock and quietly stood. "Well, I have to leave for my dorm now," he quickly developed a faux British accent as he walked away. "Pip pip, cheerio!" My companion giggled. I turned to her, a knowing smile on my face.

"You liiike him," I sang. She blushed, flailing her arms in my direction.

"Shhh! Shut up! He could still hear you!" She frantically whispered. I laughed.

"If anyone is going to give you away, it would be you." I continued to laugh. "Come on, we should probably get back to our dorm. Wes and Jeff should be there soon." Gwen nodded, running her fingers through her short, pale hair.

"Yeah, okay." She took a deep breath in. "We need to be there when Wes and Jeffy—JEFF! When Wes and _Jeff_get there." Her blush continued to grow as we left the cafeteria, stuttering and whispering to herself the whole way back to our room.

I unlocked the door and we entered. I glanced at my watch. 7:00 pm. Woah, I thought. This day has gone by really quickly. I shrugged off my sweatshirt and tossed it into a basket that sat in the corner. Unzipping my suitcase, I began to unpack my possessions. I didn't even recognize half of the folded pieces of clothing. While I put away my things, Gwen set up her iDock system on the bookshelf that stood adjacent to the wall. She scrolled through the song list, stopping to pick a specific song that I recognized immediately.

_You think I'm pretty, without any make-up on,_

_You think I'm funny, when I tell the punchline wrong,_

I bobbed my head along to the music, smiling as the familiar tune played. I hummed along, my soprano voice able to comfortably hit the higher notes. As the song came to a close, we finished packing the majority of our things. I grabbed my laptop, starting to open it, but a knock at our door interrupted me. I jumped up to answer it, and I opened the door to find Wes and Jeff, each holding a hanger with the Dalton uniform.

"Hello, Lewis," Wes smiled at me, causing my heart to flutter.

"Hi! Um, come in," I felt my face warm as they stepped beside me.

"Woah," Jeff looked around with wide, child-like eyes. "It's so clean in here."

"Yeah," Wes mumbled. "Compared to you and Nick's room…"

I laughed, then turned to see Gwen lying on her back with her laptop resting on her stomach typing away. She was always on the internet.

"Alex," I spoke to her. I received no response. "Aleeeex!" I waved my arms. "Hey! Hey!" I walked closer to her and waved my arms more. "Hey Alex!" I poked Gwen's cheek.

"What?" The girl finally peeled her eyes away from the screen.

I motioned towards the boys. "We've got company."

Gwen's eyes widened and her face went red. "Oh!" She shut her laptop and rose from her bed. "Sorry."

Jeff smiled. "It's alright."

"We brought your uniforms," Wes told me. He handed me the smaller hanger. His fingers brushed against mine, and I instantly went red.

"Oh, um. Terima kasih." I said quickly. It took me a moment to realize I had accidently shifted into Indonesian. Wes and Jeff gave me blank stares. Gwen, who was used to my occasional switch of languages at the drop of a dime, was unfazed.

"What?" Jeff asked carefully.

"I mean, thank you." I said.

"He's Indonesian." Gwen explained. "So he'll randomly pop out with phrases or words. You get used to it."

"Really?" Jeff asked. "That's awesome."

"Yeah," Wes added. "That's very interesting." I blushed at the compliments, studying my feet. "Well," Wes continued, as Jeff handed Gwen her uniform."Are there any questions you two have? Perhaps any clubs you'd like to join?"

"Actually," Gwen began, a mischievous gleam in her eye. "Where should we go on Thursday, for the Warbler auditions?"

"Wait, you're really going to audition?" Jeff's face lit up. "That's awesome!" The tall boy leapt towards Gwen, engulfing her in a hug. I smiled as her eyes went wide.

"Um, Jeff?" Wes raised an eyebrow.

"Huh? Oh!" Jeff released my friend. They were both pink with embarrassment.

"My apologies," the Asian said to my friend. "Jeff is, as you can see, rather affectionate."

"No problem," Gwen said. She was staring at the floor, her cheeks still a vibrant shade of pink.

"It's getting kind of late," Jeff mumbled, his face as colorful as Gwen's.

"Yes, I suppose it is." Wes sighed. "I'll let you two get to bed now. Maybe I'll see you at breakfast tomorrow?"

"Yeah, maybe." My heart swelled at the idea of spending more time with him. "Bye, Wes. Bye, Jeff."

"Goodbye," Wes left.

"Night!" Jeff followed his friend out the door.

"Yeah," Gwen said, still suffering shock from her hug attack.

"You look like a tomato." I commented.

"Shut up," Gwen replied, flopping onto her bed.

"I love this school already," I said out loud. Gwen mumbled in agreement and we both fell asleep within seconds.


	3. Chapter 3

** *Hannah POV***

The blaring of my alarm woke me from my slumber. I hit the off-button, resisting the urge to pick it up and throw it against the wall.

"Come on, Alex, we have to get to class," I said to my roommate, sleep slurring my words. The lump of blankets on the bed next to me shifted and a muffled cry of protest could be heard coming from within it. I shook my head as I got up, realizing that I was still dressed in yesterday's clothes. I made a mental note to try and quit the bad habit before poking the sleeping mass that refused to move.

"Get up. We need to go to breakfast," I tried again, getting only silence in response. "Ok," I faked indifference and grabbed my uniform, "I guess you don't want to see Jeff then..."

Gwen jumped out of bed, snatching up her uniform and sprinting into the bathroom to get ready. I sighed, smiling at how obsessed she was with the blonde boy. She emerged from the restroom shortly, her hair wet and tie crooked, but otherwise ready for our first day at Dalton.

"Tie," I pointed at the accessory that hung askew before leaving to take my turn in the restroom. I noticed her turn to a mirror and try to fix it out of the corner of my eye. I got ready quickly and joined my companion as we left for breakfast. Dressed in the signature blazers and trousers combo, ties around our collars, we were sure to blend in nicely at the new school. That is, if everybody actually believed that we were boys.

We headed off to the cafeteria getting a little lost along the way, but eventually we found the location of the eatery. Gwen and I stood in line, her grabbing a bowl of fruit salad whilst I chose a plate of strawberry crepes. Feeling a bit surprised at the seemingly high quality food, I scanned the large room for the Asian boy that I thought of so fondly. My heartbeat quickened as I spotted him sitting among a few others at a table. Gwen followed my gaze and scurried towards them, weaving between tables as she did so.

I followed her, silently begging my face not to blush when I saw Wes. As I neared the group, I noticed that there was a brunette boy seated beside Jeff, and a dark-skinned teen next to Wesley, leaving one seat available next to each of our crushes. Gwen and I quickly exchanged glances before taking our respective seats.

"Good morning," Wes smiled at me.

"Morning," I squeaked, beginning an intense staring contest with my crepes.

"Oh, right!" Jeff exclaimed as he noticed the confused looks on the faces of the unfamiliar boys. "Nick, David, these are a couple of new kids, Lewis and ALex. Alex, Lewis, this is my roommate Nick, and Wes's roommate David," the blonde explained as we all shook hands.

"It's nice to meet you all," David said with a smile.

"Yeah, welcome to Dalton!" Nick grinned. "So, what grade are you guys in?"

"Tenth," Gwen shrugged, her arm brushing against Jeff's. She tensed up for a moment before relaxing once more.

"Oh, cool!" Nick didn't seem to notice my friend's embarrassing moment. "So are Jeff and I!"

"Great," I smiled. "Maybe we have some classes together."

"Probably," Nick replied. "Let me see your schedules."

I handed him the sheet of paper. Wes glanced at it from over Nick's shoulder. It took every ounce of self restraint within me to keep from giggling like an idiot. Gwen and I watched Nick's expression morph into excitement and Wes's change to disappointment.

"We've got tons of classes together!" Nick exclaimed. "And Jeff has pretty much the same schedule as I do, so you've got a bunch of classes with both of us!"

"That's great!" I said. "That means you can show us around, right?"

"Yeah, anytime," Jeff said. He glanced toward Gwen.

"You guys don't have any classes with us," David said upon inspecting our schedules. "That's okay, though. I didn't think you would."

"We've got the same free period, though," Wes said. "So we can hang out then."

My cheeks turned pink. "M-maybe you can help me with my Warbler audition song."

Wes smiled. "Yeah, maybe."

The bell cut off our conversation. I jumped and squeaked, surprised.

"Calm down, Lewis," Gwen laughed. "It's just the bell."

"It's so damn loud," I whimpered.

"Come on," Jeff said. "Let's get to class!"

Gwen and I followed the two boys through the frenzy of blue blazers, desperately hoping that I wouldn't run into anyone else. I managed this barely, but only because my miniature size allowed me to slip between narrow gaps. I dodged and leaned, only brushing against someone's arm once. Eventually, the four of us reached the classroom doorway.

"You guys can sit at our table, if you want." Jeff gestured toward a few chairs. I nodded and took a seat across from Nick. I specifically did this so that Gwen would have to sit across from Jeff. Yep, I'm evil like that.

"Thanks," Gwen mumbled, looking at the table. Her bangs hid her expression, but I knew that she had to be bright red.

The bell rang again, signaling the start of our class. The chatter of the classroom died down instantly as all eyes turned toward the teacher.

Our English teacher was a young, cheerful-looking woman. Her glossy blonde hair was pulled back into a tight bun, and she wore a red blouse with a brown, pencil skirt that stopped a few inches below her knees.

"Good morning class!" she beamed. "I notice that we have a couple new students here today. Would you boys care to introduce yourselves?" She turned to face us, the rest of the people in the room following her lead. Gwen looked at me, nodding her head as encouragement.

"Hi, I'm Lewis," my voice barely came out as a whisper. A chorus of confused looks circled the room.

"Lewis," Gwen gestured towards me, "and I'm Alex."

"I am Miss Raquel," the teacher said, "and this is Sophomore Honors English. I hope you two are ready to work hard and try your very best!"

I nodded, flipping the pen in my hand. The class began shortly, and we received our books, adding to the list of items sitting in my backpack that were sure to weigh me down.

"Today, we will review grammar work," Miss Raquel announced. The class groaned. I merely sighed and pulled out a spiral notebook to take notes. I glanced at Gwen to see her doodling in her notebook, not paying any attention to what the teacher was saying. It amazed me that she passed her classes, let alone excelled in most subjects.

The class period dragged on, and by the end of class, my hand was cramping up. The bell rang, and I gladly set down my pencil for a moment before packing up my various school supplies.

"What's next?" Gwen asked me as she put away her notes.

"History," I hummed, glancing at the piece of paper that listed our class order. I scrunched up my nose, and flipped the paper over. "Now if it would only tell us where that room is."

From behind us, I heard a chuckle.

"Come on," Nick motioned for us to follow Jeff and himself. "It's this way. History is lots of fun, by the way."

After throwing my bag over my shoulder, and wincing a bit at the heaviness of it, Gwen and I walked in-between Nick and Jeff. Gwen seemed to be having a very riveting conversation with the latter, so I made short chit-chat with Nick. He was actually pretty nice, and very polite. Mostly, I asked him questions about Dalton. He told me about the Warblers, and how every year they strived for musical excellence. He also gave me directions to where Gwen and I should audition. There was a little room about three doors past the foyer where the Warbler crew practiced almost every day. I took a note of the directions Nick gave me on the back of my hand, so I would remember.

Eventually, through the neat, nicely-decorated halls of Dalton, we arrived at the history room. Most of the guys were already seated and talking, because the bell hadn't quite rung yet. Jeff and Nick showed us their desks, and the two of us set our things on the desks beside them promptly. I took in a breath of relief, from having the weight on my shoulders released.

"Hey, Lewis," Nick put a hand on my shoulder. "You okay? You look pretty winded."

"I'm fine," I huffed. "That's just...a lot...of books."

"And Lewis is so tiny that those things are half his weight," Gwen added. I had half a mind to smack her, then and there.

"Blame genetics," I growled as I took a seat. The bell cut off any further comments Nick or Jeff wanted to add. All heads were turned towards the front of the room, towards our history teacher.

The man in question was extremely tall, with slicked back dark hair. Framed glasses adorned his face, the metal resting against his nose neatly. Striking green eyes peered out from under the glass, boring into my very soul. I could tell, straight away, that this man was not to be trifled with.

"Hello, class," The man said, stoically. He held a book in his hand. "We have some new students with us today. Please, introduce yourselves."

Since most of the kids in our history class were the same ones in our previous English class, introductions were quick.

"My name is Dr. Greenwood, and you shall address me as so. Now, take out your notebooks, and have your pens poised and ready to go."

I followed Dr. Greenwood's instructions, figuring he was not a good man to become enemies with. After all, Gwen and I were probably breaking laws already. We might as well get on everyone's good side, right?

***Gwen's POV***

History went by slightly less than quickly. The period was spent taking notes on the French Revolution, and stealing glances at Jeff. He looked so adorable when he was focused...

No. I shook my head, snapping out of my silly daydream. Jeff thinks you're a guy, I told myself. It won't matter how he feels about me, because it won't work. Still, I sighed. The way his smile could light up a room was so damn perfect.

"Alex," Dr. Greenwood said suddenly. Crap, he must've noticed me drifting off.

"Y-yes, sir?" I asked, cursing silently in my mind.

"Please tell me the name used to describe the tactic used by the French government to control their subjects."

Thankfully, Hannah and I had already learned a great deal about this topic. "The Great Terror, sir." I answered confidently.

Obviously, our teacher did not expect me to answer correctly. He shot me a glare, with those terrifyingly intense green eyes and grumbled a bit. Hannah looked at me, confused. I shrugged back at her.

"Mr. Chapman," Dr. Greenwood said angrily. "Don't think that I will go easy on you because you're a new student. You best keep up with the class, or...other arrangements will be made." Huh? What the hell was that supposed to mean?

Before I could sort out what Dr. Greenwood had said to me, the bell rang. I quickly stood and found Hannah amongst the crowd. We exited the classroom together, not wanting to be seen by Dr. Greenwood and face his wrath.

"Geez," Jeff said to me. "I've heard Dr. Greenwood was strict, but I've never seen him yell at a student like that before. Were you doing something before he called on you?"

Yes, I was gazing into your gorgeous eyes, Jeff. "No," I answered. "Not at all."

"Weird," Hannah sighed. "There's always that one teacher that just hates you for no reason whatsoever."

"Yeah," Jeff agreed. "Wait, I thought you guys said you were homeschooled."

"We were. I'm referring to my mom." Hannah lied about the mom hating her part, the homeschooled part. Her mom really did resent her. Jeff gave her a quizzical look.

"Okay!" I broke the awkward silence. "We've got science next, right? Where's that?"

Jeff lead us down another hall. We came to a room with long black tables. It smelled like cleaning alcohol. "Here we are," Jeff exclaimed happily. He was so cute when he was happy.

"Alex," Hannah snapped her fingers. Crap, was I really drifting off again? "We need to figure out what we want to do for Warbler auditions."

"What?" I brushed a strand of unruly hair from my eyes. "Oh, right."

"Don't worry, guys." Jeff flashed us a wide grin. "It's not scary or anything. However, I did audition 6 times."

My jaw dropped simultaneously with Hannah's. "Six times?!" I exclaimed.

"The trick is to not over do it." Jeff told us. "Don't work too hard. Just have fun." He gave us another reassuring smile before the bell rang. We all turned forward in our seats to pay attention to our new science teacher.

The first thing notable about this man was his extremely crazy hair. It fluffed up from his head like some sort of creature. His thick glasses rested on his nose, and I wondered if his nose was actually big enough to hold up such large frames. Wide, eccentric eyes were magnified by the glass, as the man gave Lewis and I a big grin.

"Why heeellooo, Mr. Chapman and Mr. Dahn. It is an extraordinary pleasure having you in our class. Haha, don't worry. I know the world can seem big and scary sometimes, but we don't bite. And I'm Mr. Yellson. Call me George."

I raised one of my eyebrows. This guy was definitely nuts. But he was a hell of a lot better than the evil Dr. Greenwood. Something about this science teacher seemed oddly comforting though. He reminded me of a kind elderly neighbor, or a batty grandfather.

"Alright," Yellson continued, clapping his hands together. He blinked a few times. The man reminded me of some kind of odd insect creature. "Today, I'll need you to be working in groups of two, so, everyone pair up!"

The blonde boy to my left instantly latched onto my shoulder. My cheeks turned bright red.

"I call Alex!" Jeff announced.

"Wha-" I turned to Lewis, who only gave me a knowing smile.

"Don't worry," Hannah muttered under her breath. She picked up her notebook and walked toward another boy. "I'm not a cock block." I blushed even more as she introduced herself to a random student.

"Now," Yellson's voice quieted, and we all had to become completely silent to listen. "We will be learning today about the differences in ph balances in different types of liquids..." He continued to give instructions on the experiment, which, fortunately for Hannah and myself, we had already executed earlier in the year. I took the opportunity of free time to glance at Jeff out of the corner of my eye. He appeared to either be doodling on his paper, a slight smile on his face as the picture of a stick-figure battle grew in the spot on his notes. I couldn't help but smile at his look of child-like happiness he continued to draw.

"Uhh, Jeff?" I asked carefully. The boy looked up at me.

"Oh sorry...what are we doing?" He looked slightly embarrassed as he slid the paper with all of the doodles under his textbook.

I smiled. "It's okay. Here," I ran him through the experiment. I threw a quick glance toward Hannah, who seemed to be scaring the boy beside her with her intensity and frustration towards his confusion. I chuckled to myself slightly. Jeff, who seemed perfectly competent in the science experiment, went to get our supplies. I took the opportunity to pull my chair over to Hannah. She had forced her partner to retrieve the supplies.

"How's it going?" I asked.

"I should ask the same for you, lovebird," Hannah grinned.

I looked at Jeff to see if he had heard. "Shut up," I whispered harshly.

Hannah rolled her eyes. "Oh please. He can't hear us, he's way over there." She gestured towards the boys on the other side of the room.

"Well.. Yeah.. but..." I searched for an excuse before giving up and turning my chair back around to my table. I began to write out some of the written part of the assignment until Jeff returned to my side once more.

"Back!" he smiled, setting down the supplies in front of us. I beamed back at him, before breaking eye-contact and beginning to set up the equipment. Stop looking at his eyes. You don't want to drown in his deep... chocolate brown... eyes... No! Stop!

"Alex, are you okay?" Jeff asked.

"Yes!" I answered a little too quickly and sharply. I cleared my throat. "Yes, yes I'm fine. Let's get started."

Jeff gave me one of his oh-so-heart-melting smiles. I had complete confidence that I would be able to successfully perform the experiment with him by my side.

And about twenty three pH sheets later, the science period ended. Hannah was coated in a fine goo mixture of pig liver and milk, and I was spotless. Jeff really was an excellent lab partner. Unfortunately, our time together was cut short by our next class period-French. Jeff gave us careful directions to the classroom, which Hannah and I followed carefully.

The French classroom was smaller than the rest of the classrooms we had seen. The desks were squished together in disorderly rows of six, in lines of five. I watched as students filed into the classroom and took their seats. A tall boy with a wide grin slid his arm around my shoulder.

"Hello," he whispered in my ear seductively.

I jumped back, trying to disguise my feminine squeak with a lower yell. "Wha-"

"I've never seen you before," the boy said, cocking his head to the side. "You new?"

"Yeah," Hannah said. "We arrived yesterday. Today is our first day of classes." Her voice was light, uncertain of the mysterious boy before us. "I'm Lewis, and this is Alex," she motioned towards me. "What's your name?"

"I'm Sebastian Smythe." The boy said, as if we were already supposed to know. He grinned at us again, showing off perfectly aligned teeth. It was the only straight thing about him, it seemed.

"Wha-" I was still having trouble breathing after the insanely awkward encounter with the assertive student.

"We better take seats," Hannah said. It was amazing how calm she could be when I was not. And vice-versa. I suppose that was why we were friends. I was tall and blonde, while Hannah sported a head of wavy black hair and was not even five feet yet. We balanced each other out, in ways. We'd both endured the same situations, the same abandonment of our parents, the same bitchy girls at school, and the same terribly boring teachers. We kept each other from going insane, during all those years in the hell known to most as Crawford.

Ugh, even the name disgusted me.

Crawford.

It sounded like some type of diseased crustacean.

And speaking of diseased crustacean-sounding things, our new found acquaintance was currently resting his arm on Hannah's shoulder, in a way that obviously showed he had no indication of her actual gender. Her face was quickly flushing red, in the way indicating that she was about to whip out a bamboo spear and do a number on the flirty Sebastian's charmingly handsome face.

Before any blood made it to the dull walls of the closet-sized classroom, however, a young woman entered the room. Lewis and I quickly took seats. She was in front of me, and I sat behind. The black heels of our presumed teacher clacked loudly on the linoleum floors as she made her way to the front of the classroom.

"Bonjour, les étudiants," she said elegantly. "Comment allez-vous aujourd'hui?"

"Bien, Mademoiselle Morel," the class chanted. I chanted along with them, catching a few words. Hannah stared blankly before her.

I'd forgotten.

Hannah's French was atrocious.

Well, crap.

"Today we have a few new faces with us," Miss Morel said, her soft voice somehow calling the attention of twenty-plus teenage guys. Miss Morel was thin and lithe, with long, curly golden hair and an angular face. She was obviously very French, with thick eyelashes coated in a layer of mascara. She wore a flowy white blouse and a tight pencil skirt that showed off her curves. It finally dawned on me then, why all the boys in the room were paying attention.

She was gorgeous.

Of course.

"Would you two care to introduce yourselves to the class?" she asked with a casual gesture towards the other students in the room.

I stood, wincing as my chair squeaked, ripping through the silence. My face flushed a bit, and I ran my fingers through my hair nervously. "I-I'm Alex, Alex Chapman, and this is, Lewis Dahn." Hannah gave a slight wave towards the rest of the room.

"Excellent," Miss Morel said. "I'm sure you two will fit in well."

Sebastian raised his hand. "Mademoiselle?"

Miss Morel acknowledged Sebastian with a nod. "Yes, Monsieur Smythe?" She asked.

"I think it would be better if I sat in-between Lewis and Alex. I could help them out with...certain phrases." His tone made Hannah and I exchange quick glances of mild worry and confusion.

Miss Morel tapped her chin with her nail-polished finger. "I suppose that's alright,' she said with a smile. Sebastian smiled at her, in the same way he had smiled at us.

_No way_, I thought. _He's hitting on the** teacher**..._

Sebastian made a scene of scooting his seat towards our desks. In that action, he leaned against Hannah, pressing his chest over her head in awkward height contrast. Her face glowed red as she hid behind her text book, wishing away the persistent boy. "Don't worry," I heard him whisper. "I'll make sure you understand the entire lesson. I'll even give you private lessons if you want..."

"N-no thank you," she stammered, blushing more than I'd ever seen from her before. I smirked at my companion's uncomfortable state.

"Mr. Dahn," Miss Morel snapped. "Please be quiet."

Hannah nodded, wide-eyed at the teacher. She gulped and stood straight, shooting a glare at the snickering Sebastian.

He's in for it now, I thought. Hannah is pissed. I shook my head, and tried to focus on the French lesson. It was a damn good thing that Jeff wasn't in this one, or I'd be a goner.

***Hannah's POV***

"Ugh," I groaned, rubbing my temples. "That took forever."

"Yeah," Gwen agreed. "I'm so glad lunch is next."

I nodded. "We should probably start heading for the cafeteria. We need to secure a lunch table."

Gwen and I headed in the direction of the cafeteria. I looked for a face I knew amongst the crowd of boys. A few I recognized from the classes we'd had earlier that day. I spotted my Science partner from third period and waved.

"Hey, you two," a voice called. I turned, to see Wes. Without thinking, I smiled and giggled. I caught myself, however, and cleared my throat. Wes walked towards us, throwing his messenger bag over his shoulder. "So how's your first day going?"

"G-good," I squeaked.

"Pretty well," Gwen said calmly.

"Have you been able to find your classes?" He asked.

I nodded. "Jeff and Nick gave us directions for everything."

"That's good," he said, looking behind me and smiling as two familiar figures approached us. "Speak of the devil..." he said to the blonde and brunette teens.

"Hey!" Jeff said enthusiastically. He threw his arms around Gwen and I, capturing us in a tight bro hug.

"Dude, you're going to suffocate them," Nick laughed, pulling his friend off of us.

"Heh, sorry," Jeff grinned. For a second, his eyes met Gwen's. He looked away after a moment, blushing.

"So what are we going to eat?" I asked, ever interested in food. We reached the cafeteria, and sat at the table David had reserved for us.

"Well," David said. "There are a few options..."

"Show her the rice," Gwen said, laughing.

I nodded seriously. "Is that really one of the options?"

Wes laughed. "Well, there are a few Oriental things, if you head to the left-"

Not another word needed to be said. I walked quickly and purposefully to the destination, only to return to the table with some rice and vegetable tempura. Gwen's plate was filled with a veggie wrap along with various vegetables and hummus. "Looks good," I mused, as I tore apart a pair of chopsticks.

"We got the same thing!" Wes exclaimed, peering over my plate as he sat beside me. He held up a pair of wooden chopsticks.

"Great minds think alike," I said.

"Indeed," Wes returned.

Jeff wedged himself in-between Gwen and I. "Hey guys!" He said. His plate was filled to the brim with various American-style foods. Gwen and I cringed. He stuffed his mouth with a few potato chips and chased it down with a sip of Mountain Dew. I frowned.

"So," he said after swallowing his 'food', "how did French go?"

"We met a boy named Sebastian," Gwen said, "he got Lewis in trouble with Mademoiselle Morel."

"Should've kicked his ass, then and there," I grumbled, stabbing at my rice bowl angrily.

"Seb?" Jeff asked. "Aw, he's not that bad. He's pretty cool, once you get to know him."

"And once you tell him you're straight," Nick joked.

Gwen choked on her food for a moment before exchanging a quick look with me. We hadn't really confirmed our sexualities, as Lewis and Alex. It sounded weird to say we were straight, since we weren't attracted to girls, but saying we were gay wasn't really proper either.

"Uhh," I said.

"Oh, are you two gay?" Wes asked.

"Erm..." Gwen looked at me and trailed off.

"We're bi," I blurted out. I turned quickly to confirm this idea with Gwen. She nodded.

"Yeah, we're... bi," she said warily, her voice traced with caution.

"That's cool," Jeff said, shrugging. "Nobody really cares here. Everyone is treated the same. No judgement."

"Yeah," David smiled at us, "that's one of the great things about Dalton."

I smiled, relieved. "That's...that's really awesome."

Gwen and I had once again escaped the threat of the Dalton boys finding out our true identities. The new problem had caught me off guard, but it seemed to be solved easily. The issues with our little switch tended to be solved a lot more simply than I would have anticipated. I was starting to think Gwen and I could actually pull this off.

After lunch, we headed to our math class with Nick. Our teacher was a plump, middle-aged man with a mustache and beard combo. He introduced himself as Mr. Phlit, beaming as he welcomed us wholeheartedly. After the warm welcome, he quickly began the lesson.

Yay, algebra.

"So, Lewis," Nick said, placing his pencil neatly on his desk after finishing the problem written on the board by our teacher.

"Yeah?" I asked, using a whisper so I wouldn't be caught.

"Are you and Alex gonna audition for the Warblers?" He asked, interested.

I thought about it for a few more seconds. "Yeah, probably."

"That's awesome!" Nick enthused, raising his voice. He was quickly shushed by Mr. Phlit. "That's awesome," Nick repeated in a softer voice. "Have you picked out any audition songs, yet?"

I smiled. "I've got a few in mind." I turned towards Gwen, who was diligently working, like the good student she was. "Hey," I poked her with my pencil. "Hey, Alex..."

It took a second for her to recognize her alias, and she looked up at me. "Hm?"

"When do you want to audition?" I asked.

Gwen shrugged. "Whenever we feel ready, I guess."

"We'd need some time to rehearse," I said thoughtfully. "So...next week?"


	4. Chapter 4

***Hannah's POV***

Gwen and I found Wes and David sitting at a table in the library. Wes looked up at me and smiled. A pencil was resting between his thumb and forefinger casually. David straightened his tie and stood, starting to gather his things.

"Hey," Wes said. "David and I were about to head off to a nearby coffee shop. It's our absolute favorite. You two wanna tag along?"

I glanced towards Gwen. "Yeah," I said. "That sounds really good. I've never really been to any places around here before."

"Neither have I," Gwen added.

"Well, I bet you guys will love it! The Lima Bean has really good coffee," Wes smiled, standing up along with David. He shoved his books and papers into his bag.

"Just don't let him take in too much caffeine," I pointed towards my friend. "Even the smallest amount can make him _really_ hyper." Wes chuckled, and I felt my face flush.

"Don't worry, Jeff is the same way. You know," he turned to Gwen for a moment, "you two are really quite similar."

The blonde girl next to me fiddled with her large "nerd glasses", turning pink as she mumbled an indecipherable response. I laughed and walked along with Wes, out of the library. We walked through the halls of Dalton. Gwen marveled at the majestic chandelier as we walked under it.

"Holy shit," she whispered under her breath.

"I know." I whispered back.

David and Wes laughed at our bemused expressions. "Dalton has a lot of great history, you know," David said factually. "Many of Ohio's rich and famous attended Dalton."

"At least the ones that were male," Wes added.

Gwen and I exchanged a look. I withheld a giggle. "Yeah," I said. "It seems very...antique, around here."

"Oh yes," Wes said. "Everything here is original, restored, or an heirloom from Dalton's past. You know, Dalton has been a prestigious and impressionable school for over one hundred years. It's-"

I watched as Wes continued to go on a historic tangent on Dalton Academy. It was rather cute. Gwen, on the other hand, was enjoying short conversation with David. I knew she was going to force Wes and I together at some point. It would be payback for the science lab partner thing.

"-And that's why Dalton's excellence has made it such an honor to be a part of," Wes finished, smiling. I nodded, as if I knew what the hell he was talking about. David laughed, and Gwen simply looked confused.

"Are you trying to bore Lewis out of his mind?" David teased Wes.

"N-no!" Wes looked towards me, embarrassed. He looked flustered, as if he'd been caught doing something he shouldn't have. It was indescribably adorable.

"It's fine," I said with a smile. "I don't mind your ranting." Wes's cheeks blushed slightly as he turned away and coughed. "I like history, anyway."

"You and Wes will get along, then," David said. "Wes is the ultimate history geek."

"So is Lewis," Gwen pitched in.

"S-shut up," Wes and I said in unison. We glanced at each other, surprised. Gwen nudged me, misjudged her strength, and knocked me right into Wes's chest. I instantly backed away, apologizing repeatedly.

"A-anyway, we should get going." Wes continued, He tossed his car keys in the air, then caught them. We arrived at the parking lot shortly.

"So," I looked at the many cars around us, "which one is yours?"

"That one," Wes pointed to a black BMW. I noticed Gwen's eyes go wide.

"Seriously?!" she squeaked. "You have a freaking BMW?! That's awesome!"

"What's a BMW?.." I spoke quietly. David and Wes stopped for a moment to stare at me like I'd just told them that I was a creature from another planet.

"Um, Lewis isn't very into cars..." Gwen tried to explain. Wes nodded his head in understanding.

"Right, I forgot that some guys aren't very interested in that kind of stuff," he smiled at me. I couldn't help but beam back, feeling my face warm considerably.

Gwen and I crawled into the back of Wes's car, while David took shotgun and Wes sat in the driver's seat. The drive to the Lima Bean was rather silent, apart from the music Wes played in his car. It was classical, but I recognized the songs. Mozart, huh? I never would have pegged Wes for the Mozart type.

"Mozart," I said.

"You actually recognize this?" David looked at me from the front seat. "Wes is so particular about his music. He listens to classical all the time. He even dances to it."

"Do not!" Wes exclaimed.

"Sometimes he pretends to conduct an orchestra when no one else is looking..." David continued.

I giggled. "That's hilarious."

"Oh, like you don't do the same thing," Gwen said, grinning. I glared at her.

"But that was freaking Aaron Copeland, that's different." I exclaimed.

"You listen to Aaron Copeland?" Wes asked.

"Of course! I love his Sonata for Violin and Piano, what was it again?"

"Lento?" Wes asked.

"Oh yeah," I said. "That one."

"Personally I like the older pieces," Wes said. "Canon in D is one of my favorites."

"Oh, I love that one!" I gushed. "We played it in orchestra one time, it was so much fun."

"Jesus, it's like they're speaking a different language," David told Gwen.

"I know," she laughed.

The Lima Bean was a small coffee shop located downtown. Since Gwen and I had only really gone to the coffee lounge in Crawford, we had no former experience with other cafes. There were many small groups sitting at the tables that were scattered around, and a few people sat by themselves, typing away at their laptops as they sipped their various drinks. The smell of fresh coffee wafted through the the open air and hit me as soon as I opened the door. I inhaled deeply, enjoying the warm, fresh aroma of the ground beans.

"Mmm, it smells like heaven in here," I spoke dreamily.

"Well, it should, since the coffee tastes like heaven," Wes said with a grin. "Come on, let's get some while the line is still short." We ordered our drinks shortly, Wes getting a simple latte, David an Americano, Gwen a mint mocha with soy milk, and myself getting a green tea. We found a table and sat down with our hot beverages, savoring the temporary warmth they brought.

"This is great," Gwen commented, taking a sip of her vegan-friendly drink. "Better than the coffee they had at-"

"My house," I interrupted. "I have suckish coffee at my house." Gwen and I shared a knowing glance. Damn, I thought. It's so easy to slip up. "It's the beans," I said. "My dad just buys terrible beans."

"So how long have you two been friends?" David asked.

"Err..." I trailed off, trying to think of a logical story that stayed true to our male counterpart's.

"We met in sixth grade," Gwen said. "In..."

"Science camp," I said. I nearly smacked my forehead. I gave Gwen a sheepish smile. She shrugged.

"That's pretty cool," Wes said. "David and I met our Freshman year."

"Cool," I responded, nodding slightly as I sipped my tea. I glanced at the clock that sat on the wall. "Crap," I mumbled. "We better get going. We don't want to miss next period."

"What do you have?" Wes asked, getting up.

"Art," Gwen told him, picking up her bag.

"Oh, you must have art with Blaine," David smiled.

"Who?" I asked.

"Blaine Anderson," Wes said. "You'll like him. Trust me."

We walked into the art room with not ten seconds to spare. Boys were already seated. I took a deep breath, sitting down at a table near the back of the room. Only one boy sat at it, a guy with curly black hair that was slicked back with an insane amount of hair gel. He smiled at us.

"You must be the two new students, Alex and Lewis," he said.

I nodded. "Are you Blaine?"

"Yes, I am Blaine. How did you?..." he started before Gwen cut him off.

"Wes and David told us about you," she said, stopping when she realized how odd it sounded.

"Well, they told us that you were friends and that we'd have art together," I explained. "They've been showing us around the school."

The boy's hazel eyes sparkled as he smiled at us. "Wes and David are very nice. They're part of the Warbler council."

I looked at Blaine. "There's a _council?_"

Blaine laughed at my bemused expression. "Well yeah, you didn't expect us to be disorganized, did you? I mean, we do belong to the most prestigious all-boys boarding school in all of Ohio."

"I see that," Gwen said sheepishly, eyeing a random chandelier.

Silently I wondered to myself why I had thought all boys acted like bachelors. These boys seemed to actually respect us. At least, they respected us as males. There was no telling what would happen if they found out our secret.

Suddenly, a random woman grabbed my hand. "Hmmm," she said. "I sense your aura is hiding an interesting secret." She looked up at me with large, bug-like eyes. I was instantly reminded of our science teacher, Mr. Yellson. I wondered if they were related.

"Uh," was the only thing I could get out, as I backed away.

"No need to be frightened, my child," she said, beaming at me and staring into my eyes. It felt like she could see straight through my disguise and right into my soul. I stayed still, as if somehow she was like t-rex, and she wouldn't be able to see me if I was motionless. I suddenly wanted to blend in with the multi-colored floor tiles.

"And you too, Alex," the woman said kindly. "You and Lewis must be very careful to keep all your secrets hidden." She smiled and rose from her craned position. She was a tall, willowy woman, with long arms and legs. She wore a ratty green sweater that seemed to be a few sizes too big and a long skirt that trailed to the floor. She had gold-ish frizzy hair and a brightly-colored headscarf. "I will guide you through the and wondrous mystic realm of art," she said dreamily. "You may call me...Destiny."

I had trouble holding back laugh. Gwen nudged me in the shoulder, and I stifled my laughter by coughing into my arm.

"You see," Destiny spoke to the two of us, "Last names confine us to the reputations of our relatives, leaving us unable to make our own image. If we use our own special names, then we get to paint our own picture, write our own story."

"Ahem," Gwen said, cutting off my coughing. "It is very nice to meet you."

"And you, dear." Destiny said. "Now, why don't you sit here, with Blaine. He's very nice, and won't disturb your aura."

Blaine smiled. "Uh, yeah. No worries."

_Hakuna Matata, _I thought, sitting beside Blaine. Gwen sat on his opposite side. I suddenly yawned, feeling exhausted. Destiny began a long tangent about the stars and their alignment. This seemed more like an Astronomy class from the world of Harry Potter than an Art class.

_But who am I to judge? _

"Long day?" Blaine asked.

"You could say that," Gwen retorted. The unfamiliar boy chuckled as Destiny clapped her hands together, silencing the class.

"Alright, children," Destiny said. Her voice was light and airy, as if a breeze could simply sweep past and blow her away from us. "We will be working in groups of three today."

"I call Blaine!" Nearly every student shouted.

"Now, now," Destiny clucked her tongue. "Table partners."

Gwen and I looked at each other. Murderous glares from our peers surrounded us. Blaine smiled. "Alright. That will be a good chance for me to get to know you two better."

"Sure," I blinked. Blaine smiled again. I could see why people liked this boy. I wasn't necessarily attracted to him, but I felt drawn to him, like a moth to a light. He was magnetic.

Destiny walked around the room, passing out sheets of paper, magazines, and pairs of scissors. She soon arrived at our table, handing us supplies as we looked at her with confused expressions on our faces. She smiled, shaking her head like we were ignorant children, and she knew some big secret that we wouldn't understand.

"I would like all of you to get to know one another, and then I would like you to make a collage of all the things you have in common. Have fun, you three!" she explained before leaving to tell the other students about the assignment.

"So..." I said, trailing off.

"So..." Gwen responded, avoiding eye contact and opening up her magazine.

"Well," Blaine said, setting down his scissors on the table, "if you two aren't going to start the conversation, then I guess I have to. Now, how has your time at Dalton been so far? Interested in any clubs? Sports?"

"We were a little interested in joining the Warblers," Gwen explained, as she flipped through the magazine. "How would be depict that through a picture?" I pointed at a photo of a bird. Gwen rolled her eyes at me. "Too literal, Lewis," she whispered.

"Alright, now we're getting somewhere," the boy smiled.

"Um, so we all like music," Gwen said.

"Here are some pictures of the Broadway performance of Wicked," Blaine said, grabbing his scissors.

"That'll work," I said. Defying Gravity popped into my head, and I resisted the urge to hum along.

"Let's see," Blaine said, handing the pictures he'd cut out to Gwen. "Do you guys like dancing?"

"Yeah," Gwen said.

"I'm not any good," I said. 'But I like to."

"Good, good," Blaine said, working away with the pair of plastic-handled scissors. "See, we're getting along just fine."

"Well, yeah," Gwen looked at the few pictures we had pasted to the page. "It's not exactly a lot though..."

"Hmm," Blaine stared at the page, eyebrows furrowed. "What about sports? Soccer?"

My friend and I looked at each other for a moment. "Sports aren't really our forte..."

"No me gusta," Gwen said, nodding.

Blaine smiled understandingly. "That's all right. No problem there. Uhh," he stopped for a moment, to think, "How do you guys feel about equality?"

Finally, something we were familiar with.

For the next forty minutes, we talked with the boy. Before we knew it, the period had ended. Destiny allowed us time to finish the project the next day. Gwen and I exited the class, Blaine by our side.

***Gwen's POV***

"So how was your day?" Jeff asked, as I slid beside him at the table. It would be a while before dinner, and we had some time to kill. He beamed at me happily, and I felt my face flush. From across the table, I saw Hannah grinning.

"Fine," I said. "Good. Great, actually."

"That's awesome!" Jeff said.

"Hey guys," Wes and David sat at our table. "What's going on?"

"Just making sure Alex and Lewis here had a nice first day at Dalton," Nick explained. He turned to Hannah and I. "So do you like all the teachers?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Hannah smiled. "Mr. Yellson seems really nice?"

"Oh, George?" Nick asked. "Yeah, he's really fun. Be careful, though. He likes to set things on fire. Jeff lost half his eyebrow once, from an experiment."

"It was gone for a week!" Jeff said.

"It was hilarious," Nick grinned.

"It was not," Jeff pouted. He was so adorable that way. I had to bite my lip to keep from giggling like an idiot.

"I heard you got in trouble with Madam Morel," Wes nudged Hannah. She blushed. "Jeez, what'd you do?"

"Some guy named Sebastian talked to him and he got in trouble," I explained.

"I see," Wes said. "Well, Seb can be a bit of a kiss-ass when it comes to Madam Morel. Don't worry though. If you do the work in class and try your hardest, your grade won't suffer."

Hannah's shoulders slumped. "But she doesn't like me..."

"Come on, Lewis," I assured my friend, "that's never stopped you before."

"Yeah," Jeff said. "Hey, would you guys be interested in catching a movie with us on Friday? It's been awhile since we've gone into town."

"That sounds fun," I said, my heart beating faster as I thought about sitting in the dark with Jeff for 3 hours."What movie are we seeing?"

Jeff looked towards Nick and Wes. "Err, what movie do you guys want to see?"

"We don't really care," Hannah said, pulling out her brown notebook and writing a few lines.

"How about 'The Dark Knight Rises?'" Nick asked. "Jeff and I are huge Batman fans."

"Sure," I said. "Sounds like a plan." I checked my watch. "So when is dinner served?"

"Usually at around six," Wes said. "So we've got a few hours."

"We should probably get our homework done," Hannah said, ever the dedicated student.

"Right," Wes agreed. "Let's go to the library, then. It's more quiet there."

After homework, Hannah and I ate dinner with the boys, her constantly criticizing the quality of the food, Jeff shoveling everything into his mouth, and the rest of us just munching in near silence as we made casual conversation. We discussed the auditions that were coming up, and Hannah and I decided on the pieces that we would be singing. I chose 1983 by Neon Trees, and she picked I Will Follow You Into the Dark by Death Cab For Cutie. We received approval from the boys, and left dinner in a good mood. Tired from the long day filled with introductions, we sank into our mattresses with relief.

"Gwen," Hannah said.

"Yeah?" I groaned.

"What the hell are we doing?"

"We're attending a boarding school, Hannah." I said. "Just think of it as cosplay."

"Pfft," Hannah sat up. "More like cross-dressing."

"Hey," I looked at her. "We can do this. We've gotten this far without any trouble."

"Yeah," Hannah said. "But what about when we have to change for gym or something?"

"Hannah, we don't have gym," I stated calmly.

"You know what I mean!" she huffed, flopping back down onto her bed angrily.

"We'll figure it out when it happens, _if_ it happens," I corrected myself quickly.

Hannah gave me a deep, long sigh. "All right," she said slowly, testing out her words. "God, I need a cup of tea."

"Go look for a coffee shop," I gestured towards the door. "There's sure to be something on campus. Try the cafeteria."

Hannah sat up. "Fine," she said, getting up and walking out of the room. She always got pissy when she was going through tea withdraw.

***Hannah's POV***

Finding the small coffee shop was no trouble. It was tiny, more of table with a hot water kettle, coffee pot full of black coffee, and an assortment of creamers (both soy and regular), teas, and sugars.

"Thank god," I muttered to myself, picking up a white mug and a packet of white tea. I set the water kettle on boil and waited for it to heat. I leaned against the table, sighing. The cafeteria was empty. It wasn't really creepy. It was peaceful to be away from all the crowds of chaotic teenage boys. I closed my tired eyes as I waited, listening to the sound of bubbles rising from the tea kettle softly.

"Hey there," A voice said. My eyes opened to see Sebastian. I backed away, bumping into the table. Things clattered to the ground, and I cursed under my breath in Indonesian.

"You scared me," I said, turning back to pick up the items I'd knocked over.

"Sorry about that," Sebastian said. He watched me, forest green eyes following my every move. "And sorry for French, by the way."

"Hm," I mumbled, not in the mood to forgive.

Sebastian moved closer to me. "I hope I can make it up to you, in some way."

I froze. "N-no," I said. "It's okay."

Sebastian raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? I can really make it worth your while."

"L-look," I stumbled. "I'm sorry but, I'm _really _not interested." Sebastian smiled.

"It's okay, Lewis," he said, his voice growing soft. "We don't have to let anyone know. I can even keep this from Alex, if you'd like..."

"Alex and I aren't together," I said.

"Good," Sebastian took a step closer.

"Hey, Lewis!" A voice called. I looked back, to see Wes standing at the entrance of the cafeteria. Exhaling with relief, I quickly poured a cup of boiling water in my mug and stepped away from Sebastian.

"Y-yeah?" I asked, facing him nervously. I don't think I had ever felt so happy to see someone in my entire life.

"I need your help with something," Wes said, using his hand to gesture me forward. He nodded at Sebastian, who shrugged and wandered past us.

"See you in French, Lewis," he told me.

I let out another breath once he'd gone out of earshot. "What did you need my help with?" I asked.

"I didn't," Wes smiled. "You just looked like you needed saving."

"Oh," I felt my face grow hot. "Well thanks."

"And you shouldn't worry about Seb," Wes continued, as we walked back to the room that Gwen and I shared. "He hits on all the new students. After a while he'll start to treat you more like a friend."

"Good," I said, taking a sip of my tea. Warmth flooded over my taste buds, and I instantly felt more at ease.

We reached my room. I could hear Gwen's music playing loudly from the other side of the door. I smiled, relieved to be around something familiar. I cradled my mug between my two hands, letting the steam drift upwards.

"White tea," Wes said, recognizing it.

"Yeah," I nodded. We stared at each other for a few moments. For a split second, our eyes met. We instantly broke eye contact, though, and I opened the door. "Well, good night Wes."

"Night," Wes returned, turning away and hurrying down the hall quickly. I could've sworn I heard him muttering something under his breath. I closed the door behind me, leaning against it as I sipped my tea.

"You okay?" Gwen asked from her bed. She was on her laptop. "That took you awhile."

"Yeah," I sat on my bed. "Yeah, I'm fine." I watched as Gwen typed away and nodded her head to the music, thinking about the look that Wes had given me before we parted, and whether I imagined it or not. I let myself smile a little, as I settled back onto the pillows. It had to be my imagination, right?


	5. Chapter 5

**Alright guys, so, I haven't actually SAID anything for a while now. And I sort of regret it... Anywho, I want to say thank you to all of our marvelous readers! My companion and I really appreciate every view. Seriously. We get so few views on this fic, and every view makes me happy and warm and gooey inside. So, all of you are FABULOUS and I love each and every one of you. I apologize for the sucky updating schedule, or lack-there-of, but it's just really REALLY hard to find time when both my friend and myself can get on google docs and just write for a while. :/ We try our hardest though! Also, if any of you have anything to say, anything at all, just leave a review! EVERYONE OF YOU IS AMAZING AND I SEND YOU ALL MY LOVE.**

* * *

><p><strong>*Hannah's POV*<strong>

I groaned, watching Gwen lug her book bag to the dinner table. I flopped over on the table, my hair a tangled mess and my brain completely exhausted. "Who would've thought a week's worth of school would be so damn complicated?" I mumbled.

Jeff laughed. "Aw, come on, it's not that bad." He gave me a friendly pat on the back. I hissed at the pain. Ten pounds of textbooks had definitely taken their toll on my spine. Jeff scooted away, startled. I flicked my hair back.

"So," David sat next to me. "Are you guys ready for a movie?" He grinned.

"Yes," I raised my hand feebly, not quite sure if I possessed the energy to actually move. "I need a break from work."

"Me too," Gwen agreed. "I think the teachers are trying to kill us."

"Oh no," Nick said. "Teachers will seem like that at first. They're just trying to see how hard of workers you guys are. You'll earn their respect soon enough."

Gwen and I gave a long, heavy grumble of despair. Wes slid into the spot across from me, and I instantly perked up, making sure my tie was straight and my hair wasn't defying gravity too badly. I glanced toward Jeff, who was busy showing Gwen songs on his iPod. I rolled my eyes, thinking about how creepily perfect they were for each other. They were both musically inclined for example, and had the same type of style. Jeff always made Gwen laugh, even if his jokes were a little too pun-oriented for anyone else's taste. During meals and passing times, Jeff always seemed to be showing Gwen some new song, teaching her the lyrics and melodies.

"The movie starts at eight," Wes said. "It's seven now. We might want to get going soon." I nodded, feeling my heart flutter as we made eye-contact.

"Wait," I spoke, confusion settling upon me. The group stopped turned to me. "What are we going to do for cars?"

The boys in the group exchanged glances with one another. "Well," Nick looked at us sheepishly, "I don't think we really thought of that..."

"Yeah," Jeff joined in, "Usually we all just ride in the same car, but I don't think that's gonna work now..."

"Hmm... How about Lewis rides with Wes and I in his car, then Jeff, Nick, and Alex, ride in Jeff's car?" David suggested.

"That sounds good," Gwen nodded with approval. She gave me a side-long glance, to make sure I was okay with being separated from her. Since the tea scene in the cafeteria, I had felt vulnerable whenever I was apart from someone so familiar. But I smiled.

"Yeah, okay." I said. I waved to Gwen quickly before heading to Wes's car. Thankfully I recognized it, and didn't embarrass myself by tugging on the handle of some random car. Wes and I piled into the back seat, and David took the driver's seat. He started the ignition, watching in the rear-view mirror to make sure the others were out of the way before he pulled out of the parking spot.

"So where's the movie theater?" I asked, trying to make light conversation.

"Just a few miles into town," David said. "It won't take very long."

"Are you excited for the movie?" Wes asked. "Personally I'm more of a Spider-man guy, but Batman is pretty cool."

I nodded shyly. "Err...yeah." I fiddled with the hem of my sleeve, staring at the world outside the window. "Um...Batman...Spider-man...man..."

"You're not into superheroes, are you?" David laughed.

"Uh...no, not really." I admitted. "But this movie looked really interesting!" I added quickly. Wes shrugged.

"Okay. Well I've heard pretty good reviews for this movie," he mumbled.

We sat in silence for a minute or so before David cleared his throat and looked into the rear-view mirror at me.

"So, Lewis, do you have a boyfriend? Girlfriend?"

I almost choked on air. "W-what?!"  
>"DAVID!" Wes exclaimed. " You can't just <em>ask<em> people things like that!"

"I'm just trying to make conversation!" he shrugged. "Also, Lewis didn't answer my question-"

"And he doesn't have to," Wes glared at his friend, his cheeks turning a bright shade of pink.

"No, it's... It's fine," I tried to calm myself down. "I don't have a... 'significant other' at the moment." I sat awkwardly in my seat, determined to keep my face from turning red by concentrating on the cars that drove by outside my window. I could feel Wes staring at me from the other side of the car.

"Oh. Okay..." he said quietly.

"See?" David said, oblivious to the mood. "That wasn't bad, was it?"

"Just shut up," Wes sighed. And we rode in silence for the rest of the trip. I spotted the movie theater within a few blocks. David parked, Wes quickly unbuckled his seat belt, and we waited for Gwen and the others to arrive.

***Gwen's POV***

Jeff laughed as I crawled into the back seat. Nick grinned at me from the passenger's seat. "This is going to be so much fun," the blonde told me enthusiastically. "Wes and David? They're boring old juniors. But Nick and I? We're the awesome ones!"

"Aw, yeah!" Nick agreed. They buckled their seat belts before turning up the radio, full blast.

"I love this song!" I shouted over the sound of the music. The mix of vocals, electric guitar, and electronic-sounding noises filled the air around me. We all bobbed our heads, dancing and singing along, laughing the whole time. By the time the song finished, we were all out of breath. Nick turned down the radio as commercials began to play.

"So, Alex," Nick said, turning to me. "How have your classes been, aside from the immense amount of work you've been getting?"

"Not bad," I said. "Jeff has been helping me a lot with science." I motioned towards Jeff. I noticed a faint blush across his cheeks as our eyes met.

"Yeah," he said slowly. He looked out onto the road, ceasing the conversation abruptly.

"So," Nick said again, tearing his worried gaze from his friend to me.

"Hey," Jeff said suddenly. "So how'd that date go with...er, what's her name?"

"Jennifer," Nick answered. "And not well. She was a little...stuck-up, for my taste." He shrugged. "Oh well, though. Hey, Alex, what about you? Dating anyone?"

I froze, completely thrown off by the question. "Um, I-I..." I stammered.

"If that's a sensitive topic, you don't have to answer," Nick said. "I'd understand."

I shook my head. "No, no. Um...no, I'm not dating anyone right now."

"I see," Nick said, nodding. He looked towards Jeff, who was acting abnormally silent. "What's up with you? Oh man, you're not getting sick, are you?"

"No," Jeff answered. "Just...er..thinking about something. That's all."

I suddenly noticed that we had arrived at our destination. I saw Hannah, David, and Wes waiting for us at the entrance of the theater. Hannah waved at me.

"Did you guys have an okay drive?" David asked.

"Yeah," Nick said, in place of Jeff, who normally would have answered straight away. "Little quiet, considering we had Jeff with us, but we didn't encounter any problems."

"Jeff? Quiet? Are you serious?" David raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

"I was trying to concentrate on the road," Jeff defended weakly. He rubbed the back of his neck with one of his hands awkwardly. I turned away, hoping he wouldn't catch the blush spreading across my cheeks. I noticed Hannah standing next to Wes. He stood a good few inches above her, which was impressive, considering most guys towered over Hannah like those city-destroying monsters you see on dramatic Japanese movies.

"Concentrate my ass," Nick teased, playfully punching Jeff on the shoulder. "Something's on your mind, and it's up to me, as your friend to get to the bottom of it." The brunette gave a wide, determined grin, and Jeff rolled his eyes, looking slightly irritated.

"We should probably get seats," Wes said suddenly.

"Yeah," Hannah quickly agreed. "The movie starts soon."

We followed the two into the theater. The ticket booth line was nearly empty, filled by only a woman with a few children and a couple, giggling and holding hands.

"Ah, the rustle and bustle of Lima," I commented. Hannah snorted. It took about ten minutes to obtain the tickets (which Jeff purchased, with promise that we would pay him back later), and headed for the candy counter. Wes bought a Snickers bar, David a Milky Way, Hannah some M'n'Ms, and Nick a small popcorn. I stood at the counter, looking over the candy.

"What do you want?" Jeff asked, pulling out his wallet.

"I was about to get some Redvines..." I trailed off. "But you don't have to buy them. I brought money."

Jeff blinked at me a few times, as if he hadn't quite comprehended what I had said. "Redvines?" He asked.

"Uh, yeah." I said. "They're my favorite."

"They're my favorite too!" Jeff exclaimed happily. His eyes lit up and he threw both his arms around me, in Jeff-tackle-hug fashion. I didn't have time to respond, as he pulled away within seconds. The woman at the counter-a tall Asian girl-simply stared. "We'll take two packs of Redvines!" Jeff slammed the money onto the counter. He grinned enthusiastically at me. "Nick never wants Redvines at the movies. I finally have someone to share them with!"

"Really?" I asked. "But they're amazing!"

"I know!" Jeff raised his voice to a yell. "They're fantastic! The food of gods! Made from the tears of ANGELS! They're magnificent and glorious and fabulous and-"

"Jeff." I cut him off. "I think the people are staring."

"Who cares if they stare?" Jeff exclaimed. "I am simply expressing my affection for the best food on the universe, Alex. There is no shame in that." The woman handed him two packs of Redvines-which I am sad to say, did not come in King's Size, and turned to the next customer, therefore shooing us away. He handed me mine.

'If we run out during the movie, you can always get more." Jeff said. "I always finish my candy before the trailers even start."

I smiled. "Of course."

Jeff shrugged happily.

***Hannah's POV***

The crinkling of various candy wrappers and the crunch of Nick's popcorn prevented me from hearing the advertisements playing from the screen. I turned to Wes instead.

"I've forgotten how loud some of these trailers can be..." I whispered, flinching every time the volume increased once more. Wes chuckled softly.

"Going to an all boys school, you learn to get used to loud noises," he smiled, "especially when you're friends with people like Nick and Jeff."

I laughed. "Yeah, Alex can get pretty loud too."

"Is that so?" Wes asked. "He never really seemed like the type."

"That's just because you haven't known him as long as I have." I explained. "Trust me."

Wes nodded. "So..." he started.

"So," I repeated. "Um, what's the plan after this?"

Wes shrugged. "We probably should be back to the dorms. We do have curfew, you know."

Gwen suddenly sat beside me, followed by Jeff, who sat on his opposite side.

"Hey," she said softly, "did we miss anything?"

I shook my head. "The movie hasn't started yet." I noticed the blue wrapper of a box of Redvines. "Really?"

Gwen grinned. "Yes. Jeffy likes them too."

"Jeffy?" I struggled to hold back my laughter at the ridiculous nickname.

"Jeff! I said Jeff!" Gwen hissed at me in a whisper. I withheld an obnoxious giggle by cover my mouth with my hand.

"Hey, shut up!" A man in the front shouted.

_Make me. _I wanted to shout back. However, the filter inside me kept the words at bay, instead forcing a death-glare in the man's direction. Wes turned towards me, noticing my tenseness.

"You alright?" he asked.

"Lovely," I returned, a deep undertone of resentment hidden under my voice.

Finally, the beginning credits of the movie flashed on the screen, in bright letters. The audience "ooh"ed and "awww"ed at the graphics. I watched intently, as names of people I didn't know faded away, revealing the starting scene. The lights dimmed, and I felt a lurch at my chest as Wes shuffled in his seat, inching slightly closer to me, before shifting away again. He seemed absolutely absorbed in the movie, whereas I barely knew what was going on.

The first scene passed into the next, and the one after that, each filled with more action. Nick passed his popcorn to us from his seat. Each person (other than Gwen) took a handful. Once the container had been passed around a few times, it settled between Wes and I. Taking careful precaution to avoid the awkward "brushing hand episode", I watched Wes out of the corner of my eye, making sure to only reach into the popcorn container when he wasn't.

I felt a nudge from Gwen. I leaned in closer to her, and snickered at her sarcastic and slightly sassy comment to a character on the screen. For a while I focused on the movie, trying to make some sense out of the costumes and plot line. An intense scene kept everyone on the edge of their seats, anticipating each actor's next move. I absentmindedly reached over to the container of buttered popcorn. My fingers bumped into Wes's hand. I glanced up, meeting my eyes to his for a second. His flicked back to the screen.

"Sorry," he muttered.

"S'okay." I said back, even though it was my fault. It was difficult for me to concentrate for a while, with my mind replaying my idiocy over and over again. As characters quarreled, and villains began to prevail, I was once again sucked into the movie, immersed into the world of superheroes, car chases, and gun shootouts.

One particularly sudden explosion made me jump, instinctively grabbing the nearest thing to me. This thing just so happened to be Wes's arm. The popcorn was long gone, inhaled by Nick by the sixty-minute mark. Wes looked at me, peeling his eyes away from the movie. I expected him to be pissed, or irritated at the least. Instead he looked concerned.

"Hey, it's okay." He whispered.

"Err, sorry." I let go of Wes's arm, moving as far away as possible from him, which wasn't really far at all.

"Scared?" Wes asked.

"No," I made a face. "It just...startled me."

Wes let out a soft laugh, only audible to me. "Sure," he said, returning his gaze to the screen. Looking at the characters that ran across the screen, I noticed him looking at me out of the corner of my eye. I sighed softly and closed my eyes, trying to calm myself down. It was only a small thing. He would have acted the same way if one of the others was in my place, right?

***Gwen's POV***

The movie was nearly at its close. The falling action was rather uneventful, with only a few whispered conversations between the main characters. The villain spewed out a particularly cliché line to his hostage and I rolled my eyes.

"Can they still get away with lines this cheesy?" I asked Jeff, leaning towards him. He grinned in return.

"I don't know, some cheese is alright," he shrugged, casually turning to face me, but his expression froze as soon as our eyes met. I realised how close our faces were and my breath caught in my throat. My eyes were glued to his, and the deep mahogany color seemed to draw me closer. Or was he moving closer? My heart began to race as our faces came even closer to one another. I felt his breath hot on my lips, and my eyes began to close-

"Do we have any popcorn left?" Nick asked a little too loudly.

His voice shook me out of the moment, and I quickly spun away. Jeff backed away as well. I couldn't see his face in the darkness, but I'm sure was as red as mine.

"Um, no. We're out," I muttered.

"Oh, okay," the brunette seemed mildly disappointed, but looked back to the movie as the ending credits came on to the wall in front of us.

As the audience clapped, and the lights came on, I let out a sigh. I was a little shaky, from my "near-kiss" encounter. I suddenly felt the weight of a week of school and a late night. I didn't even want to check my phone to see what the time was.

"Well that was awesome!" Wes said. Hannah looked sheepishly at him. Her face was rather flushed as well.

David looked tired as well. "Yeah, it was. We should be getting back though. Curfew is really soon." He stretched and led the way out of the theater. "Wes, Jeff, why don't you go with me? Lewis and Alex can ride with Nick. I'm sure they don't want to hear your post-movie rambling."

We all nodded in agreement, and made our way through the people exiting the movie. Hannah and I collapsed in the back of Nick's car.

"You guys tired?" Nick asked, smiling.

Hannah could only manage a nod. "Yeah," I said. I lazily buckled my seatbelt, letting my eyes close for a second and forget the night's events as sleep strengthened its grip, pulling me into a dreamless doze.

"Hey, Alex," Nick's voice prodded through the thick blanket of sleep that separated my dreams from reality. "We're back." His voice was soft, gentle, as he carefully shook me awake. I cracked open my eyes, noticing that my friend was providing much more trouble being awakened.

"Lewis, get your lazy ass up," I pushed Hannah. She wrinkled up her nose.

"Fine," She muttered, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

"Come on guys," Nick yawned. "It's really late, and I don't want to get yelled at for waking other people up when we get inside."

"Wait," I crawled out of the car, looking around, "where are the other guys?"

"Probably back in the dorms, now come on, let's go," Nick seemed to be a bit irritable when he got tired. I made a mental note not to try to pull any all-nighters with him.

"Alright, I'll just see you guys in the morning then," I waved my arm at Nick as he crunched on the gravel towards his room. Hannah was out of the car by this point, shivering in the cold of the autumn night. We walked towards our building, quickly pulling out a key to unlock the front door and enter back into the realm of warmth.

"Oh! Yeah!" my friend stopped momentarily and grabbed my arm. "I have something that I really need to tell you!" She stopped and looked around the hall. Lowering her voice, she said "I'll tell you when we get back in our room."

Once inside, Hannah closed the door behind me. "You'll never guess what happened at the movie."

I grinned. "Spill."

We quickly exchanged our stories. Hannah explained how she had accidently brushed hands with Wes, then grabbed his arm during the scary part. I told her about the moment where Jeff and I nearly kissed.

"Damn, girl," Hannah giggled. "Your story totally beats mine."

I sighed, sitting on my bed. "So what are we going to do about this? You obviously like Wes, and I obviously like Jeff."

"But they don't know who we really are." Hannah said. "And we can't let them find out, under any circumstances."

"Yeah," I agreed.

"For now, I think it's best if we keep the flirting and awkward moments to a minimum. We aren't here for relationships, Gwen. We're here for school."

I nodded, thinking about our lives back at Crawford. It was so vastly different. While the classes here might have been particularly challenging, but at least I liked them. And while the teachers could be strict at times, they were certainly better instructors than the ones back at the all-girls school. I loved Dalton. And I wasn't going to trade it for anything. Hannah and I were going to keep our secret under-wraps, at all costs.

I laid down on my bed, kicking off my shoes. "Well, goddammit."

"I know," Hannah sat beside me. "Seems like every time we meet someone worthwhile, something goes wrong." She smiled. "Don't worry, though. I'm sure keeping our feelings buried under tons of female hormones won't be too difficult."

"Damn Jeff for being so adorable." I stated, closing my eyes.

Hannah laughed. "And damn Wes for being the same." Hannah quietly slipped into pajamas, her pink bunny slippers the only remainder of her once feminine past, and went to go get a quick cup of tea, after debating with herself on whether or not Sebastian had fallen asleep yet or not. I told her it didn't matter, especially because if she didn't get her nightly cup of chamomile, it would take her hours to get to sleep. Damn insomniac.

I, on the other hand, fell asleep within seconds of getting dressed for bed. I dreamed of Redvines, and superheroes, and buttery popcorn kisses.

***Jeff's POV***

I laid on my bed, gazing at the ceiling as the memories of the night flooded through my mind. We almost kissed. Alex and I almost kissed. I almost kissed another boy. I thought I was straight, but now... nothing made sense anymore. Alex didn't seem like the other guys. He seemed... different. He was cute, in a way that I didn't think boys could be. My eyes shut, and I sighed as the confusing thoughts continued to flow through my brain. The soft click of a door opening brought my attention to my roommate, who smiled as he entered the room.

"Tired?" he asked with a grin, kicking his shoes off and sitting down on his own bed.

"Mmhmm..." I nodded, spacing off as he changed into pajamas and got ready for bed. "Hey, Nick?" I called to my friend, my heart beating a bit faster as I thought of what I was about to say.

"Yeah?"

"I think... I think I have a problem." The silence in the room seemed to drag on for eternity. Nick looked at me, his face growing confused as he noticed my serious expression.

"You seemed a little off tonight. Anyways, what's going on?" he sat down beside me. I avoided eye-contact, choosing my words with caution.

"I...I think I might... like Alex..." my voice came out as a whisper, barely audible.

"...What?"

"I like Alex..." I spoke a bit louder.

"Alex?" Nick raised an eyebrow. "Well yeah, he's really nice..."

"No." I cut him off. "Like, I might..." I groaned, not knowing how to convey what I was feeling.

"Oh," Nick suddenly said. "You mean _that_ kind of like."

I stuffed my face into my pillow and nodded.

"Well..." Nick said. "That's...that's alright, I suppose."

"You suppose?" I said. The pillow muffled my words.

"No, no," Nick quickly said. "I mean, that's great, Jeff. I have no problem with it."

"We almost kissed." I suddenly said, tossing the pillow aside. Nick stared at me, his mouth sat slightly open. He quickly changed his posture, clearing his throat as he did so.

"Well, then I guess you should... ask him out?" he suggested cautiously.

"I just-" I sighed, frustrated at my lack of words. "I don't know if it was just me, or if it was him too, and I've never liked another guy before, and I don't know if I'm just insane or something, and-"

"Jeff, calm down," my companion cut me off, placing a hand on my shoulder. I took a deep breath and shook my head. "It's all going to be fine. You just have to figure this out. Maybe you should wait a little while, see if he feels the same way? It's the most logical place to start," he shrugged.

"Yeah, I guess I'll just go from there. I can't really do much else anyways..."

"Good," my friend nodded. He suddenly yawned. "Hey."

"What?" I asked.

"You're still my best friend, okay?"

I smiled. "Thanks."

Nick fell asleep faster than I did. For hours I simply laid in bed, mulling over the conflicting thoughts in my mind. So...I liked Alex. The idea wasn't as foreign as I thought it would be. I smiled a little to myself, feeling content. Nick snored from across the room. I laughed a little, then closed my eyes, willing myself to finally get some sleep.


End file.
